125th anniversary Sunday

LANE -- The Spring Grove Friends Church near Lane will celebrate its 125th anniversary in Miami County on Sunday with exhibits, a basket lunch and story-telling.
The Quaker church was founded in 1859 and its first meeting house, which was also used as a school, was built 1859 and 1860.

The church building presently is located in southwestern Miami County on Lane Road west of U.S. 169.

According to church records, Spring Grove church is the second oldest in the Mid-America Yearly Meeting, formerly known as the Kansas Yearly Meeting.

It met for 17 years at that first meeting house, until 1876 when that building was torn down. The present building was constructed on property owned by Simon Jones. Additions to the building were completed in 1964 and 1973. In June 1896, the quarterly meeting was held at Spring Grove and continued there for many years. Sometimes these meetings lasted for three days.

Church records show that the members met regularly, although there were several periods totaling about 18 months when no meetings were held because of severe weather conditions.

The first parsonage was moved onto the church property in the mid-1940s. It burned during an electrical storm in June, 1977, and was rebuilt immediately.

On Sunday, the congregation will celebrate 125 years of meeting with a special worship service. The speaker for the morning worship will be Maurice Roberts. The service begins at 10:45 a.m. A basket lunch in the church annex will follow the service.

The afternoon session will begin at 2 p.m. and will feature a performance by the Ding-a-Lings of the Beagle United Methodist Church.

Anyone having memorabilia concerning the church is invited to exhibit it during the afternoon. Also, there will be time to share stories about the church, the congregation and its history that afternoon.

Present church officers are: Lloyd Cook, Sunday school superintendent; Mary Ellis, clerk; Bertha Elliott; recording clerk; Penny James, treasurer; and Beth Shapiro, pastor.